Magnificent May

Greg brought Andi and Bastian over before leaving for his summer job in Portland, OR. Good luck Greg. We will miss you and see you up at the cabin in August! (Andi is loving her Oreo!)

This is Brooklynn's 8th grade promotion. Allison an I decided that Brooklynn was the prettiest young woman there!

AMAZING April Events

Here is Mindy BEFORE the 'tiny little' Carter was born, April 16th, 2010 at 4:45 PM. Did I hear anyone say HUGE! He is Mindy and Ryan's first son and Ashlynn (2) seems to know he's her brother but hasn't quite gotten the motherly/sisterly instinct. Carter weighed 9.12 and is 22&1/2 inches long!

Carter's first moments with his mommy and daddy.

Happy Grandpa and GoGo

And this is a newborn!

CARTER RYAN FORBES

Adventurous April Events

What a blessed April it's been. With Easter, 6 birthdays, John and my 35th anniversary, and drum roll....a new baby, we are overjoyed! This is cute Sam at McDonalds.

Oaklee really got the loot on Easter with an egg hunt AND a pinata'. All the grandchildren were sugared up!
Snatching of the Pinata goods.

Sweet Charlee helping Ande!
John and my little get-a-way to Bisbee, AZ. We went 3000 feet down in the Queen copper mine. It was cold and spooky down there!

15th year in St George

We Red Hots had another fun trip to St George. In a spontaneous minute, we decided to go to Salt Lake first thing and to get a VIP tour of the Governor's mansion. Since Connie is the Gov's sister, she pulled some strings to get us in! It is a lovely and historic building. We then went to the State Capital and toured the Governor's private offices and had lunch in the cafeteria. After stopping at a fun store in Provo and seeing one of the girl's new house to-be, we finally headed south and got to St George about 9:30 PM.
View of the Salt Lake Temple as we were coming over a hill.

After having such a big day, we stayed in our p.j.'s all day the next day. Heaven! We also enjoyed a session at the St George temple and a little shopping. We watched two movies and ate delicious food that we made for each other.

Georgous staircase in the Governor's mansion.

Here we are in the living room of the mansion.

I was watching Charlee, Oaklee and Jaxson one day and Charlee said she wanted to make cupcakes. Next thing we know, she was cracking the eggs and putting in the oil! All three of them licked the bowl and frosted the most beautifully decorated (which they also did) cupcakes ever!

Meridian Magazine:: Photoessay: A Morning Visit to Adam-ondi-Ahman, Part 1

This article gave me chills to read and learn more about what happened here and what will happen here!
Meridian Magazine:: Photoessay: A Morning Visit to Adam-ondi-Ahman, Part 1

Meridian Magazine:: Photoessay: A Morning Visit to Adam-ondi-Ahman, Part 2

Meridian Magazine:: Photoessay: A Morning Visit to Adam-ondi-Ahman, Part 2

Meridian Magazine:: Photoessay: A Morning Visit to Adam-ondi-Ahman, Part 3

Meridian Magazine:: Photoessay: A Morning Visit to Adam-ondi-Ahman, Part 3

Meridian Magazine:: Photoessay: A Morning Visit to Adam-ondi-Ahman, Part 4

Meridian Magazine:: Photoessay: A Morning Visit to Adam-ondi-Ahman, Part 4

Hospice

Last week I went through a three-day training so that I can be a Hospice volunteer. The training opened my eyes to some wonderful new vistas! It renewed my faith in my fellowman for one thing. The people I met who are already volunteers are the epitome of goodness! They do for the sake of serving and love. I experienced the amazing fact that outside my world, things are done in a much more extended amount of time. I tend to do whatever has to be done as quickly as I can in order to get on to the next thing! But out there, things are accomplished and enjoyed in a slow-mo process!

I have been given such abundant blessings and people have been there for me in many ways so I want to give back. My service in the community has been limited to being a room-mother at school. Everything in it's time and season... I look forward to this new adventure and hope that I can be used by God to help those individuals and families who are facing separation to feel hope and the love that God has for them.

And this is my joy...

January blahs? No way. Not with the blessings of family that we have!

Bastian and Ella

Aaaa 'somebodies' been sleeping in my bed! With these three, we never know what will happen next. I love that about them! Devin, Allison and Brooklynn

How about a kiss baby! Charlee and Oaklee

We had a fabulous visit from my parents and sister and brother-in law for a week in Janury/February. We ate out, saw a Broadway show (Unsinkable Molly Brown) ate out and in, went shopping, ate, went minature golfing, ate, danced, laughed, watched movies and loved every minute of being together! Spongebob (dad-85) and mom. (almost 83) Troopers!

Bruce, mom, dad, John, me and Nancy at Top Shelf Mexican restaurant

Cute Sam (15 months old)

Adorable Ashlyn on her second birthday at the mall play place. (Dec.)

My life would be so boring without my family. What would you do without yours?

New Year's in Heber, AZ

Well, here we are toasting to the New Year with yucky-tasting apple cider! The kids thought it was a blast to blow the horns and make as much noise as they could! Our family was privileged to spend a few days up north at the cabin we rented the last two summers. We had a blast! Here is a sampling of what went on. Each family was in charge of one meal and one activity. Amid the sledding, snowman building, the haunted zip line, there was also testimony sharing, movie making and a whole lot more.

With the girls it was fashion and talent shows. Here are a couple of Nina's dress designs worn by Ella and Oaklee. What they really are is long pieces of fabric wrapped around and tucked to make a "gown". Just lovely!

Here is Sam as Davy Crocket. He loved having that hat on.

There is a closet full of dress-ups and it is the most used closet in the house! Here is Jaxson as Batman.

Bastian as Batman too. He wore this outfit for hours!

Devin as Batman! (He wrestled it off of Bastian!)

Brooklynn had all of us have dress up for a video but it didn't pan out. We were a wedding party and well, it was a disaster! We just weren't cut out for acting, I guess! But our outfits were fun!

Devin and Brian in their wedding clothes.

Brian showing us his physical prowess. He actually did 20 push-ups with Jaxson on his back.

No one else came close to that!

Oh my!
All of the GRANDS! They are the grandest! (top) Nina holding Sam, Charlee holding Andi (bottom) John, Jaxson, Ella, Ashlyn, Oaklee, Bastian and Elle. John and Elle's faces are a crack-up!

Sam's favorite thing was to push around the mop bucket.

We had an ugly sweater contest and Greg's won.
I was actually quite taken with it!

Brian with baby Andi.

Just good 'ole B!

Happy New Year! The kids were so excited about getting to "stay up" until midnight! None of them can tell time so their 'midnight' started at 8:30 and they were in bed by 9:00 PM!

Scottee (the blue behind on the left!) treated the ladies to pedicures! Here they are waiting patiently for their special treatment.

John as ? He makes a cute whatever he is!

Elle in another one of Nina's designs.

Ryan, Ashlyn and Brooklynn taking a walk in the snow. Ashlyn was afraid to touch it!

Oaklee, Charlee, Nina and Elle in the snow fort!

With made-from scratch German chocolate cake and cinnamon rolls, games of Dominos, "Would You Rather" and Battleship, talks around the fire with laughs and tears, hot chocoate and otterpops, it just couldn't have been better! (Except for Treslee getting sick and John hitting his head while sledding. Oh, and the noise from the main floor while the babies were trying to sleep!) We made a Barry Time Caspsule that will be a treasure for all time with the grandkids words of wisdom and predictions of the future. I wish we could do it all again!